1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of molecular biology and medicine. More particularly, it concerns treatments for bacterial infections.
2. Description of Related Art
Obesity is associated with a chronic inflammatory state that contributes to the development of insulin resistance (Hotamisligil, 2006). Activation of the Inhibitor of Kappa B kinase β (IKKβ) in macrophages stimulates the release of inflammatory mediators that promote insulin resistance (Arkan et al., 2005; Yuan et al., 2001); indeed, disruption of NF-κB activity through deletion of IKKβ increases insulin sensitivity (Arkan et al., 2005).
The second messenger cAMP has been found to exert potent anti-inflammatory effects on macrophage function through induction of the Ser/Thr kinase PKA (Aronoff et al., 2005). A number of bacteria including Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Agarwal et al., 2009) and Bacillus anthracis (Tang and Guo, 2009) have been shown to evade the immune system by stimulating cAMP production. Clearly, there is a need for new therapies to treat an infection by bacteria that can evade or suppress immune destruction by stimulating cAMP production in the host.